The invention relates to a product gripper for the taking up of a product, having two vane blades, having a driving means to move the vane blades between a first position, in which the vane blades can be placed onto a support for the product to be taken up at oppositely disposed sides of the product to be taken up, and a second position, in which the vane blades are located at least partly beneath the product to be taken up, and having a downholder for the fixing of the product to be taken up while the vane blades are moved beneath it, with the downholder being arranged above a vane blade plane defined by the vane blades.
Product grippers of this type are used, for example, in the food industry to transfer food products from a first conveying means to a second conveying means, to sort them or to introduce them into a packaging. The product grippers are typically mounted at the moving part of a robot.
In a known product gripper of the initially named kind, the vane blades are rigidly attached to a frame structure of the product gripper and the downholder includes an elastically deformable component whose lower side facing the product to be taken up has a spacing from the vane blade plane in the unloaded state of the product gripper, the spacing being lower than the height of the product to be taken up so that, on the lowering of the product gripper onto the product to be taken up, the elastically deformable component first engages at the product upper side and subsequently the vane blades touch down on the product support. This has the disadvantage that the downholder is supported at the product while the product gripper as a whole is lowered further to bring the vane blades into contact with the product support.